1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a printing apparatus including a transport unit in which a user manually sets a medium into a roller pair.
2. Related Art
One type of printing apparatus includes, for example, a transport device. A roll body wound with a medium (roll-form medium) may be mounted on the printing apparatus such that the medium can be supplied to the printing apparatus. The transport device transports the medium, which is fed out from the roll body, toward a printing region where a printing unit performs printing on the medium (for example, JP-A-2009-166403 and JP-A-2011-11889). After a roll body has been replaced, a user performs a setting (or loading) operation to set (or load) the medium in a transport unit by manually pulling the leading end portion of the medium out from the roll body and inserting the leading end portion into a roller pair of a transport unit.
For example, JP-A-2009-166403 describes a printing apparatus (a continuous paper printing apparatus) that includes a first printing device for printing the front face or side of the medium and a second printing device for printing the back face or side of the medium. In this printing apparatus, if a setting operation is performed prior to starting printing the front face, printing may proceed with only a small number of setting operations because no setting operation is performed to reset the medium of a roll body in the middle of front face printing and back face printing. However, this is a large printing system, and the second printing device for printing the back face of the medium is unnecessary for users who do not need to print on the back face of the medium. However, in the printing apparatus described, for example, in JP-A-2011-11889, a common printing unit needs to be employed when printing on the front face and when printing on the back face of a medium fed out from a roll body. In such cases, a user needs to perform a setting operation to reset the medium of a roll body in a transport unit after printing on the front face and before printing on the back face, resulting in a larger relative number of setting operations. In this manner, setting operations to set a medium into a roller pair are performed in printing apparatuses such as those described in JP-A-2009-166403 and JP-A-2011-11889, although the frequency (number of times) thereof differ.
A setting operation, in which a user pulls a leading end portion of a medium out from a roll body and sets the leading end portion into a roller pair, is performed in a non-nipping state in which the pair of rollers do not nip the medium and there is a gap between the pair of rollers. In the setting operation, the medium slips out from the gap between the pair of rollers if the user takes their hands away from the medium during the setting operation. In order to avoid such a situation, a user needs to press or hold the medium with one hand, while using their other hand to arrange the medium and operate an operation lever to open/close the pair of rollers.
This type of a medium setting operation is a troublesome operation. In particular, for example, in a large printing apparatus for printing large size medium, the roll body is heavy. Thus, there is a heavy operational burden in the setting operation to pull the medium out from the roll body. Moreover, in such printing apparatuses, a skew correction operation is performed to correct any skew (angle) of the medium prior to starting printing. Because the skew correction operation is performed while a transport operation to transport the medium in a transport direction is performed, a waiting time is caused from when the user performs a print start instruction operation to when printing of images on the medium is started. These problems are not limited to printing apparatuses that employ roll bodies, and are roughly the same for printing apparatuses in which sheet medium, such as cut paper, is set into a roller pair in a transport unit.